Talking About Section 215: A Readers’ Guide

Media coverage of John Oliver’s critique about the lack of discussion surrounding government surveillance programs seems to prove his point. Much, if not most, of the attention given to Sunday night’s episode of Last Week Tonight has focused on Oliver’s interview with Edward Snowden instead of focusing on the fact that the law governing one of the most heavily-criticized surveillance programs is up for potential reauthorization in less than two months. We’re talking about Section 215 of the Patriot Act, the provision allowing the NSA to collect vast quantities of Americans’ phone records.

Given that Section 215 is on track to sunset in 55 days on June 1 — and because Congress will be out of session starting May 21, which is only 45 days away — we thought it would be useful to provide the following list of Just Security posts on the issue along with government and court documents on the program in hopes of encouraging an informed public debate on the topic.

(While it is most commonly known as Section 215 of the Patriot Act, the provision is also known as Section 501 of Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) and is codified at 50 U.S.C. § 1861.)

Letter to Congress by privacy groups, technology companies, and trade associations urging reform can be found here.

The US Intelligence Community’s 2015 report on signals intelligence reforms can be found here, and a factsheet with an overview of the report is available here.

The Privacy and Civil Liberties Oversight Board’s report on the Section 215 program, as well as the separate statements of Board members, can be found here.

The FISA Court’s most recent opinion authorizing the bulk collection of telephone metadata can be found here. The IC’s next application to renew these authorities — if there is one — is due May 22, the day after Congress goes out of session.

Judge Claire Eagan’s declassified FISA Court opinion from August 29, 2013, which includes background on the program and details about the legal framework in which the program operates, is available here.

The unredacted, classified order from the FISA Court that was leaked by Edward Snowden in June 2013, is available here. The order was issued on April 23, 2013, and allowed the NSA to collect all call detail records (i.e., metadata) “created by Verizon for communications (i) between the United States and abroad; or (ii) wholly within the United States, including local telephone calls.”

Judge John D. Bates’ declassified opinion on how First Amendment protections interact with Section 215 applications that are based, in part, on First Amendment-protected activity is available here.